Crosby, the Pittsburgh Penguins star forward and one of the
premier faces of the National Hockey League, sat out of competition
for 10 months — with much of Canada watching its native son
— as he dealt with post-concussion symptoms in 2010-11.

Days after suffering a concussion and his second blindside hit
in one week playing with the Penguins, Crosby told the media he
wouldn't practice or play until he was symptom-free and hoped the
NHL would take a closer look at how blindside hits are affecting
the game.

Merrill took to his platform last National Lacrosse League
season, as he wrote weekly blogs for Philly.com, the website of the
Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News. Merrill is director of
lacrosse and boys' lacrosse coach at The Hill Academy (Ontario), a
multiple-time NLL and MLL All-Star, All-World defenseman and
generally a widely respected figure in the lacrosse world.

He didn't feel right after being hit but masked his concussion
symptoms and finished the game (and had done this before in his
career as well). It wasn't the right decision, he wrote. His
symptoms persisted and intensified and he experienced what he said
was general fogginess and pressure in his head. He missed the
Wings' next two games.

Writing about his own experience was one thing, but Merrill also
moved into a discussion on hitting in lacrosse, and what its place
is.

"I think we need to take a serious look at the role of contact
in our sport," he wrote. "Do the big hits make the game what it is?
I don't think so and I don't think we would miss them if they were
gone...

"We have to make fundamental changes to our game and we have to
catch ourselves when we act with the 'win at all costs' mentality.
We have a lot of smart, forward thinking people involved in
lacrosse. If you are serious about the game and serious about the
safety of the players, you have to step up. Some concussions are
unavoidable, but so many others are avoidable, but we have to
change the culture."

In an interview with Lacrosse Magazine later, Merrill
said he wrestled with the decision to write a blog on the topic. He
didn't want it to appear that he was simply reacting to his
concussion. He wasn't.

"It's something I've been thinking about for a long time," he
said.

Merrill coached Jamieson Kuhlmann at Hill Academy. Kuhlmann died
in May 2008 as a result of a check from an opposing player during a
game with the Toronto Beaches. He was sent into a coma and never
woke up.

The hit on the 15-year-old 10th-grader was described as a routine, legal hit. In
the days following, the Kuhlmann family showed concern for the boy
who checked Kuhlmann and didn't blame him.

"It was an accident. It was within the rules of the game. But
when that happened, it kind of changed the way I was thinking about
things," Merrill said.

He's not the only one. Teammates from The Hill Academy honored Kuhlmann
at a memorial service by wearing his jersey number 45.
Many Hill alums, such as Denver midfielder Jeremy Noble, Johns
Hopkins attackman Zach Palmer and former Cornell defenseman Jason
Noble, haven't stopped. They wear or have worn No. 45 at the NCAA
level. So does Merrill. He wore 45 with Team Canada at the 2010
Federation of International Lacrosse (FIL) World Championship and
again as recently with the Canadians at last fall's "Duel in
Denver" against Team USA.

This article is a web extra supplementing the October issue of
Lacrosse Magazine, a special sports science and safety
edition.

Don't get the mag? Join US
Lacrosse and its 400,000-plus members today to start your
subscription.

All of these experiences led to him sitting down to write on the
role hitting plays in lacrosse, and contact sports in general.
Another contributing factor: A close family friend, who was a
longtime Canadian Football League player, passed away from Lou
Gehrig's disease, which, according to some research, could be
linked to concussions and brain trauma.

"I got positive feedback on the concussions article," Merrill
said, "and I'm not the only one that's thinking about it. If
nothing else, it's initiated some more dialogue on the subject.
There's still so much we need to learn about head injuries. There
are lasting long-term serious effects that can come from it. We
have to be proactive and try to be, as a sport, ahead of the curve
and try to be an example for other sports."

Merrill doesn't think drastic changes are needed, and steps have
already been taken in the right direction. He said contact in the
scoring area is always going to have a part in the game and there
are some hits that are unavoidable, but there are also ones that
are avoidable.

"Enforcing the big blindside hits more strictly," he said when
asked what could be done. "We're starting to see that, but I still
see examples both as a player and a coach where we celebrate the
big hit. When somebody doesn't have the ball or when somebody's not
looking, those hits are still legal. Those hits need to be taken
out of our game.

"I don't see where it would have an effect on the flow of the
game, strategy or why we love lacrosse. I grew up as a hockey and
lacrosse player. I love contact. I have always idolized guys like
Scott Stevens [in the NHL] and Pat Coyle [in the NLL], and guys
like that who were very physical players. As I've gotten older, my
experiences in the game have kind of changed the way I look at
that. I try to embrace that as a player."

"There's these little decisions in a game, or these moments
where you can either pull up a little bit or you can really press
it and follow through," Merrill added. "If we just educate and make
athletes aware of the long-term repercussions of reckless play,
then when we're faced with those situations we'll tend to make the
better decision."

Merrill is a big sports fan, and as he wrote, looked up to San
Diego Chargers linebacker Junior Seau. Merrill used wear Seau's No.
55 when he played lacrosse. When Seau committed suicide in May
2012, two years after retiring as one of the premier linebackers in
NFL history, it hit Merrill hard.

In August, on the eve of its fall season, the NFL reached a $765
million settlement over concussion-related brain injuries among its
18,000 retired players, agreeing to compensate victims and pay for
health care up to $5 million for players who have or develop ALS,
Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease or another severe
cognitive impairment. At the same time, the NFL has enforced
stiffer penalties and discouraged hits to the head and hits on
defenseless players.

Lacrosse has followed a similar theme.

Starting with the 2011 college men's season, the NCAA allowed
officials to issue one-, two- and three-minute non-releasable
penalties when a player deliberately initiates contact with an
opponent's head or neck with any part of his body or stick. In the
summer of 2012, the NCAA men's rules committee took intent out of
the equation by removing the word "deliberate" from what it called
the "targeting the head/neck rule" in the rulebook.

In its latest round of rules changes for boys' lacrosse
effective for this season, the National Federation of State High
School Associations (NFHS) for the first time classified the
targeting of defenseless players, including blindside hits and
body-checking a player who has his head down in an attempt to play
a loose ball, as an illegal body check. A minimum of a two- or
three-minute non-releasable penalty is to be assessed. The penalty
for checks involving the head and neck was strengthened across the
board, making a two-minute non-releasable penalty the minimum. A
one-minute penalty, as at the college level, had been possible
previously.

"This revision will reinforce the need to eliminate these
collisions from the game," said Kent Summers, the NFHS liaison
to the boys' lacrosse committee.

According to a recent video analysis study of 34 concussion
incidents in Fairfax County (Va.) high school boys' games, most
commonly injured players were unaware of pending contact. The study
was co-sponsored by the National Operating Committee on Standards
for Athletic Equipment (NOCSAE) and the US Lacrosse Sports Science
and Safety Committee.

Coaches bear responsibility to support the rules, Merrill
said.

"It's discouraging when you're on the sideline and you have to
listen to how some coaches coach the game. You have to be careful
of the messages we're delivering to athletes," he said. "We'll get
there eventually. Hopefully we can continue to educate people on
the reality of head injuries."

And players, too.

"The blindside defenseless hits are avoidable," Merrill said.
"It was big here in Canada when Sidney Crosby sat out for so long.
That really created a lot of awareness around the subject. It kind
of trickled down, and hockey has made some really positive changes.
He went through a whole playoffs and missed half a season because
he didn't feel right. He probably could have played through a lot
of those symptoms, but didn't feel right and he had the courage to
stand up and get the necessary help before he came back."